Category Archives: Local News

Date Night was refreshing and, of course entertaining with all of the H-town people watching. I’ll go into that another day. See, our weekend has been pretty much completely consumed with one thing:

Operation Shovel-Out-R’s-Room-to-Find-the-Missing-Rice-Necklace.

In his defense, he gets this from me. He treasures this necklace so much that, last week, he put it away in ‘a very safe place.’ Such a safe place that he can’t remember where it is. Only that it’s somewhere in his room. This has to be genetic. I’ve done this countless times. So many times that I’ve started writing important things down on Post-its. And then promptly forget where I put the Post-its. So yesterday the Spouse took on the supervision of both minions to get the rooms cleaned out and up, with the goal of finding the rice necklace. They worked all day.

And guess what? This has turned into a family project. R just looks at the disaster that is his room with a deer-in-headlights expression. He’s frozen. Give him a direct command and he just stares at you – he’s that shell shocked at this point. I finally got him moving by promising a sweet treat of his choice if the room gets done today. I’ve spent the last hour and a half in there with a shovel.

Now I get why my cousin’s husband made the ‘nothing comes in this house unless something goes out first’ rule when they got married. And to think I was horrified by it at the time…

Moving on… Remember my January resolution? The one to be more positive? I’m focusing on that for the rest of this post. The Spouse pretty much called me to task yesterday when he found me stewing over (and, in his words, ‘ready to start a virtual cat-fight’) over a spew of negativity I read on the web. So what am I going to do about it?

I’m going to put a positive spin on our local H-town news.

Over the last year or so, the Spouse and I have taken to calling the local news the Pep Report. Can’t remember why, but it was funny at the time. And usually it’s free entertainment. It’s honestly so easy to get pessimistic and negative about today’s news, so here is my positive spin on local events.

First and foremost, H-town police finally caught the Naked Prowler. This unidentified guy spent the last couple of weeks terrorizing local residents by knocking on doors at odd hours of the night with his pants around his ankles. Multiple sightings were reported, but the guy evaded capture. (Although how he managed to get away so quickly without falling or pulling up his pants I’ll never know.) Turns out he is a 20 year old college kid with an apparent drug problem. Go figure. And the positive spin? All of the residents who were targeted just happened to be older women who lived alone. I’m sure that added some much-needed spice to their New Year.

Apparently the new crime trend around here is attempted carjackings at gas stations. Targets are loners sitting in their cars texting or talking on the phone while the tank is filling up. One guy – also a college student – managed to avoid getting jacked and was gracious enough to consent to an interview. According to him, ‘It’s just wrong that they would try this on me. I’m just a college kid. I don’t have any money and can’t afford to lose my car. I hope they get these guys soon.’ Good point. And the positive spin? The jackers ran away, so he was able to keep his car and only lost his $500 cell phone. Whew. Thank goodness. I’m so glad that student aid covers top-line cell phones these days – must-haves for any college kid.

A missing toddler was found. Turns out she was picked up from daycare by her grandmother, who didn’t tell her son that she was doing so. The positive spin? The kid’s dad now knows that his mom is prone to violent and unpredictable outbursts.

And finally, apparently there is some kind of big football game today involving the Texans. In Boston. Since I’m a blueblooded Cowboys fan from way back I really didn’t know. But, thanks to our local news team on location, I now know where to get the best cannolis in Beantown. And in case I can’t get a hotel room there, I have a handy list of where to stay in Providence – only 50 miles away.

If you have toddlers, apparently the hot new device is the iPotty. So your 2-year-old can now spend 20 seconds trying to do their business instead of only 15. But hey, the docking station does come with a pee guard.

My personal addition – since the game starts at 3:30, I know exactly when I’ll be doing my grocery shopping for the week in an empty store. Score!!